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Saturday, August 8, 2015

A House Divided by Robert Whitlow

About the book: A father's mistakes nearly cost his children everything. Now his children must unite to take on the most important case of their respective careers.

Corbin Gage is slowly drinking himself into the grave while running a small law practice in a small Georgia town. The assistant DA in the same community is his son Ray, poised for a professional breakthrough based on a job offer to work for the best law firm in the area. Roxy is Corbin's daughter, a rising star associate in Atlanta for an international law firm that specializes in high stakes, multi-million-dollar litigation.

Against the advice of everyone in his life, Corbin Gage takes on a toxic tort case on behalf of three boys who have contracted non-Hodgkin's lymphoma due to an alleged chemical exposure. The defendant, a herbicide/pesticide/fertilizer company, is the largest employer in the area. Because of the lawsuit, Ray's job offer evaporates, forcing him to go to work with his father. Roxy's expertise in complex litigation draws her into the drama.

As their investigation uncovers an audacious conspiracy to conceal dangers to their community, Corbin, Ray, and Roxy come to a personal treaty in their pursuit of justice. But they soon discover that burying a problem can have explosive results.

My thoughts: Legal novels are not new in the publishing world. You have authors both secular and Christian producing them. John Grishom writes secular legal suspense and Randy Alcorn writes Christian legal suspense. The author of A House Divided has been on the market writing Christian novels for several years with at least seven prior publications.

In A House Divided we see a family broken by the effects of alcoholism in the life of the father. The father, son, and daughter are all attorneys but they are not working together. The elder Gage, Corbin, has a small legal office in a small Georgia town. His son is the Assistant DA and the daughter is established in a large, international, law firm in Atlanta.

Corbin is a considerate and caring individual who truly likes and wants to help the citizens of his town in their legal matters. That is why when presented the case where two small boys are struggling with cancer which might be the end result of a fertilizer processing plant dumping chemicals that contaminated the well water, Corbin dug tenaciously into it even knowing he was out of his league in doing so. He cared.

But Corbin struggles not only with the legal issues of this huge case, but with his personal need to be part of his family which he hurt so much through his lifelong abuse of alcohol. Corbin deeply loves his grandson, Billy. Corbin's love for this young grandson moves him toward the impossible - giving up his alcohol.

As the story progresses, the legal issues are worked through and in doing so there are family and town repercussions of the suit.

A well written, very readable story. I felt there was a bit much of AA's 12-step program in the story, but that is what Gage was plodding through himself, so it is fitting it should be worked into the story. I actually loved little Billy and the interchanges between Billy and Corbin. This seems to be a perfect relationship between a Grandpa and Grandson.

I enjoyed this book and can recommend it as an enjoyable, clean, good read, that focuses on the need for God in one's life and the strength one has when relying on Him.

DISCLOSURE: I received a complimentary copy from the BookLook Blogger Review Program on behalf of Thomas Nelson Inc. and the author to facilitate this review. Opinions expressed are solely my own. I was not compensated for this review.

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